Luke StilsonTechnical art & tools

Blender · Tools · Real-time graphics

Tutorials & walkthroughs

I like figuring out how things work, why they work the way they do, and whether there’s a better way to do them.

Longer explanations, practical workflows, and experiments. Project files, source code, and downloads are linked alongside the videos that use them.

Follow along on YouTube ↗

Blender fundamentals

Datablocks, external files, and the system behind Geometry Nodes.

Blender's Data API (Part 2 |External Data) thumbnailWatch on YouTube ↗

Blender's Data API (Part 2 |External Data)

Learn how relative vs absolute paths work, when to pack your files, how to unpack them, and what dangers come with packed data. We’ll cover practical scripts to reload external data and tips for building a clean, portable file structure in real production workflows.

OpenVAT & engine workflows

Start with the overview, then follow the workflow into an engine or explore the experiments.

OpenVAT Overview - How Do Vertex Animation Textures Actually Work? thumbnailWatch on YouTube ↗

OpenVAT Overview - How Do Vertex Animation Textures Actually Work?

In this video, we break down what a Vertex Animation Texture (VAT) is and how they can be encoded — allowing you to turn any deforming animation (including Geometry Nodes, simulations, rigs, and modifiers) into a compact texture that can be decoded in real-time inside game engines like Unity, Unreal, Godot, and more.

Video chapters
  1. 0:00 Intro & Showcase
  2. 1:35 What is a vertex animation texture
  3. 5:49 Encoding approaches (proxy vs world offset)
  4. 9:41 Use cases, proximity shader ideation
  5. 11:23 Masking and blending example
  6. 13:02 Do it yourself (getting openVAT)
  7. 13:25 OpenVAT panel overview
  8. 15:49 Creating source animation
  9. 17:23 Analyzing baked VAT results
  10. 18:19 Decoding the VAT in shader
  11. 20:38 How encoding happens
  12. 25:39 Outro, what’s next
Fluid Simulations As Vertex Animation Textures For Game Engine Use | OpenVAT - Blender 4.5 thumbnailWatch on YouTube ↗

Fluid Simulations As Vertex Animation Textures For Game Engine Use | OpenVAT - Blender 4.5

This video documents two experimental techniques for encoding fluid simulation into Vertex Animation Textures using OpenVAT.

Video chapters
  1. 00:48 Triangle Soup Explained
  2. 07:50 Triangle Soup Setup + Unity Look
  3. 11:26 Triangle Soup Geometry Nodes Overview
  4. 15:22 Triangle Soup Result & Analysis
  5. 16:11 Sparse SDF VAT (Splat) Explained
  6. 20:30 Blender SDF via Geometry Nodes
  7. 25:42 Sparse SDF VAT Result
  8. 27:28 Final Thoughts & Considerations

Tools & materials

Walkthroughs for the Blender tools I’m building.

Game-Ready Material Authoring in Blender (Aether Extension Preview) thumbnailWatch on YouTube ↗

Game-Ready Material Authoring in Blender (Aether Extension Preview)

Welcome to Aether – a (completely free) advanced material authoring toolset I'm building for Blender.

Video chapters
  1. 00:00 Introduction & What Aether Is
  2. 00:41 Installing Aether from GitHub
  3. 01:52 Setting Up an Aether Scene
  4. 03:45 Creating and Converting Materials
  5. 04:20 Rendering and Previewing PBR Maps
  6. 05:50 Using Geometry for Decals and Detail
  7. 09:58 Source Maps & Seamless Texturing Techniques
  8. 18:51 Final Thoughts & What’s Next

Pipeline notes

Export, lightmapping, and the bits between Blender and an engine.

I Tried to Fix Blender’s FBX Export and Lost My Mind thumbnailWatch on YouTube ↗

I Tried to Fix Blender’s FBX Export and Lost My Mind

The Issue (As I See It): - Blender cannot use Autodesk’s FBX SDK due to GPL license incompatibility. - Blender’s exporter is a reverse-engineered C implementation. - FBX exports are always tagged as Y-Up in metadata—even if you select Z-Up. - Blender bakes transforms into bones/meshes instead of relying on clean FBX metadata. - Armature space is used directly; this results in a phantom -90° X rotation baked into the root .

Modular Modeling and Lightmapping Overview | Blender to UE4 thumbnailWatch on YouTube ↗

Modular Modeling and Lightmapping Overview | Blender to UE4

Grid spacing/snapping, best practices for materials and UVs, exports and imports, basic lighting setup, and post processing - get rid of those ugly seams between your modular walls. I cut out most rambling and build/loading screens. Feel free to leave a comment if I missed anything or if you have any further questions!

More of the process

Shorter tests and work in progress are in the dev log and on Instagram.

Experiments & Dev Log →Instagram ↗Support my open-source work ↗